Prasad’s arguments “misrepresent both the science and the regulatory record.” On Friday, Vinay Prasad—the Food and Drug Administration’s chief medical and scientific officer and its top vaccine regulator—emailed a stunning memo to staff that quickly leaked to the press. Without evidence, Prasad claimed COVID-19 vaccines have killed 10 children in…
A distinct population that was isolated until the last thousand years or so. The fossil and genetic evidence agree that modern humans originated in Africa. The most genetically diverse human populations—the groups that have had the longest time to pick up novel mutations—live there today. But the history of…
A first-in-the-nation heating and cooling network in Massachusetts is set to double in size. The US Department of Energy has approved an $8.6 million grant that will allow the nation’s first utility-led geothermal heating and cooling network to double in size. Gas and electric utility Eversource Energy completed the…
“China’s first rocket recovery attempt achieved its expected technical objectives.” China’s first attempt to land an orbital-class rocket may have ended in a fiery crash, but the company responsible for the mission had a lot to celebrate with the first flight of its new methane-fueled launcher. LandSpace, a decade-old…
Planned orbital observatories would see satellites cross nearly all of their images. On Wednesday, three NASA astronomers released an analysis showing that several planned orbital telescopes would see their images criss-crossed by planned satellite constellations, such as a fully expanded Starlink and its competitors. While the impact of these…
Study: Moai were created by small, decentralized working groups, not managed by one central “chieftain.” Credit: ArcGIS Easter Island is famous for its giant monumental statues, called moai, built some 800 years ago. The volcanic rock used for the moai came from a quarry site called Rano Raraku. Archaeologists…
A key driver of US renewable energy research is now the National Laboratory of the Rockies. The Trump administration has renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, now calling it the National Laboratory of the Rockies, marking an identity shift for the Colorado institution that has been a global leader…
One of Vladimir Putin’s favorite sabres to rattle seems to have lost its edge. A Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fired from an underground silo on the country’s southern steppe Friday on a scheduled test to deliver a dummy warhead to a remote impact zone nearly 4,000 miles away.…
Uncontrolled mining in areas of Myanmar ruled by powerful ethnic armies has boomed. In early 2025, Sian traveled deep into the mountains of Shan State, on Myanmar’s eastern border with China, in search of work. He had heard from a friend that Chinese companies were recruiting at new rare-earth…
The assassination of a Hungarian duke, why woodpeckers grunt when they peck, and more. It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we’ve featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we (almost)…
